Fiction Resources
Below is a compilation of resources providing analyses of George MacDonald’s fictional works.
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Books
Articles, Essays, and Dissertations
Articles from the North Wind Archive
Videos
Books
Waking the Dead: George MacDonald as Philosopher, Mystic, & Apologist, by Dean Hardy
Winged Lion Press, 2020
“Dean Hardy's well-researched and lucidly written book illuminates key philosophical contexts and questions pertaining to George MacDonald's literary creations. Hardy's careful nuance honors the ambiguities, shadows, and richness of MacDonald's insights and approach. In this way he reflects MacDonald's dynamism, wisdom, and power." —Dr. Kerry Dearborn, author of Baptized Imagination: The Theology of George MacDonald, and Drinking from the Wells of New Creation.
George MacDonald: Literary Heritage and Heirs, edited by Roderick McGillis
Zossima Press, 2008
MacDonald scholar Stephen Prickett writes that the book looks at MacDonald's “historical imagination, the influence of his native Scottish culture, the impact of English and German Romanticism, his reading of the Bible, his interest in Darwinism, and in the Victorian intellectual environment as a whole. Several contributors provocatively discuss recent adaptations, redactions, and presentations of MacDonald's work and thought."
Rethinking George MacDonald: Contexts and Contemporaries, edited by Christopher MacLachlan, John Patrick Pazdziora and Ginger Stelle
Scottish Literature International, 2013
16 essays “looking directly at MacDonald the Victorian – at his place in the Victorian literary scene, at his engagement with the works of his literary contemporaries and at his interest in the social, political, and theological movements of his age.”
Informing the Inklings: George MacDonald and the Victorian Roots of Modern Fantasy, edited by Michael Partridge and Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson
Winged Lion Press, 2018
Twelve essays exploring how MacDonald and fellow literary figures such as S.T. Coleridge, Lewis Carroll, Charles Kingsley, and Andrew Lang paved the way for 20th century fantasists such as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
George MacDonald in the Age of Miracles, by Timothy Larsen
InterVarsity Press, 2018
Historian and theologian Timothy Larsen considers the legacy of George MacDonald, the Victorian Scottish author and minister who is best known for his pioneering fantasy literature, which influenced authors such as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. Chesterton, and Madeleine L'Engle. Larsen explores how, throughout his life and writings, MacDonald sought to counteract skepticism, unbelief, naturalism, and materialism and to herald instead the reality of the miraculous, the supernatural, the wondrous, and the realm of the spirit.
Scotland’s Forgotten Treasure: the Visionary Romances of George MacDonald, by Colin Manlove
originally published by Aberdeen University Press, 2016
Colin Manlove (1942-2020) lived and taught in Scotland for most of his life. He lectured in British literature at Edinburgh University from 1967 to 1993, and is the author of several books on fantasy, including Modern Fantasy (1975), Christian Fantasy (1992), and Scottish Fantasy Literature (1994). Though he often published on George MacDonald, this is his only full-length study of the fantasy works.
George MacDonald’s Children’s Fantasies and the Divine Imagination, by Colin Manlove
Cascade Books, 2019
"Colin Manlove's George MacDonald's Children's Fantasies and the Divine Imagination is the most thorough and creative exploration of MacDonald's conception of the imagination that we have. . . . This work is comprehensive, and quite simply the best critical study of MacDonald's most enduring fiction. Manlove brings formidable erudition to his exploration, and he delivers brilliant readings of MacDonald's work. This is an indispensable study of MacDonald." --Roderick McGillis, Professor Emeritus, University of Calgary
For the Childlike: George MacDonald’s Fantasies for Children, edited by Roderick McGillis
Scarecrow Press, 1992
16 essays on books including At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, The Lost Princess (The Wise Woman), The Light Princess, The Golden Key, Cross Purposes, and The Giant’s Heart. At the Back of the North Wind is a particular focus of essays, and Lilith is frequently cited.
Book Review: For the Childlike: George MacDonald's Fantasies for Children by Roderick McGillis, by Sheila Sullivan
Indiana University Press
Victorian Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 130-132
Articles, Essays, and Dissertations
On George MacDonald, by G.K. Chesterton
Why George MacDonald Matters, by Timothy Larsen
Just the Time for Story-Telling: George MacDonald and a Christ-Wise Imagination, by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson
Rooted Deep: Discovering the Literary Identity of Mythopoeic Fantasist George MacDonald, by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson
From MacDonald to Magical Realism: Faith and Fantasy with the Romantics, Marquez, Murakami, and Van Halen, by Seth Myers
George MacDonald: Merging Myth and Legend, by Robert Trexler
The Richness of Plain Talk: Interview with David Jack on Translating the Beauty of George MacDonald, by Annie Nardone
Saving the Monsters? Images of Redemption in the Gothic Tales of George MacDonald, by Scott McLaren
In the Name of the Father: Manliness, Control and Social Salvation in the Works of George MacDonald, by Jenny Neophytou
Articles from the North Wind Archive
NB: The North Wind Archive classifies some articles under multiple topics. Where an article deals primarily with a given work, we have classified it under that work; where a more general article appears under multiple topics, we have chosen what we judge to be the primary topic applicable. Therefore the listings of articles below are not comprehensive, and readers are encouraged to directly browse the North Wind Archives.
North Wind Archive: Influences, Contemporaries, and Collaborators
'Amiable Infidelity,' 'Grim-Faced Dummies,' and Rondels: Robert Louis Stevenson on George MacDonald, by William Gray
A free translation by Richard Lines of two sections from George MacDonald ei Romantici Tedeschi, by Giorgio Spina
A Theologian's Dealings with the Fairies, by Gwen Watkins
Allegory and Aestheticism in the Fantasies of George MacDonald, by Yuri Cowan
Antigravity: Matter and the Imagination in MacDonald and Early Science Fiction, by Elmar Schenkel
Beasts and Monsters in MacDonald's Fairy Stories, by Dieter Petzold
Below in the Depths: MacDonald's Symbolic Landscape, by Adelheid Kegler
Did William Morris Start MacDonald Writing Fantasy, by Colin Manlove
Die Aufhebung in George MacDonald, by Bonnie Gaarden
Extract from a Lecture Given at Huntly September 1990, by David Robb
F.D. Maurice: The Man Who Re-wrote the Book, by Stephen Prickett
From Child to Childlike: The Cycle of Education, by Chad Schrock
George MacDonald and E.T.A. Hoffmann, by Raphael Shaberman
George MacDonald and Jean Paul: An Introduction, by William Webb
George MacDonald and Lewis Carroll, by R.B. Shaberman
George MacDonald and T.S. Eliot: Further Consideration, by John Pennington
George MacDonald and the Fairy Tales of Francis Paget and Frances Browne, by Colin Manlove
George MacDonald in Germany, by Gisbert Kranz
MacDonald, Morris and 'The Retreat', by Nicholas Salmon
MacDonald and Jacob Boehme, by Dale J. Nelson
Nature and Fantasy, by John Pridmore
Reluctantly Inspired: George MacDonald and J.R.R. Tolkien, by Jason Fisher
Shadows that Fall: The Immanence of Heaven in the Fiction of C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald, by David Manley
Some Linguistic Moves in the Carroll-MacDonald 'Literary Game', by Fernando Soto
The 'Childish Imagination' of Ruskin and MacDonald, by John Pennington
The Flash and the Grandeur: The Relation Among MacDonald, Lewis, and Wordsworth, by Jim Prothero
The Influence of Dante on George MacDonald, by Giorgio Spina
The Tennyson Connection: Fragments from MacDonald's Correspondence, by Rachel Johnson
The Two Worlds of George MacDonald, by Stephen Prickett
Two Notions of Hell, by Gwen Watkins
North Wind Archive: Literary Criticism
Rooted in all its Story, More is Meant than Meets the Ear: A Study of the Relational and Revelational Nature of George MacDonald's Mythopoeic Art, by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson
North Wind Archive: Education
A 'TESOL' Application of Three George MacDonald Fairy Tales, by F. Hal Broome
Aspects of the Oeuvre in MacDonald in Philosophy Courses and a Play at a German Gymnasium, by Adelheid Kegler
From Child to Childlike: The Cycle of Education, by Chad Schrock
Maturation and Education in George MacDonald's Fairy Tales, by Dieter Petzold
Straddling Boundaries: Gutta Percha Willie and the 1870 Education Act, by Anne W. Anderson
Teaching George MacDonald's Myths, by Rolland Hein
North Wind Archive: Biography
'The Day of All the Year': MacDonald's Christmas Aesthetic, by Daniel Gabelman
North Wind Archive: Language
Exploring a Corpus of George MacDonald's Fiction, by Patrick Maiwald
George MacDonald's Use of the Scots Tongue, by Sir Edward Troup
Language, Ideology, and Fairy Tales: George MacDonald's Fairy Tales as a Social Critique of Victorian Norms, by Osama Jarrar
North Wind Archive: Fairy Tales
A Theologian's Dealings with the Fairies, by Gwen Watkins
MacDonald's Fairy Tales and Fantasy Novels as a Critique of Victorian Middle-Class Ideology, by Osama Jarrar
The Children's Voices: MacDonald's Fairy Tales, A Child's-Eye View, by Rachel Johnson
North Wind Archive: Allegory and Symbolism
Allegory and Aestheticism in the Fantasies of George MacDonald, by Yuri Cowan
Images of Creation, by Kathy Triggs
North Wind Archive: Imagination
'Beheld from the Other Side', by William Webb
Bridge over the River Why: The Imagination as a Way to Meaning, by Kerry Dearborn
North Wind Archive: Archetypes and Mythology
George MacDonald as a Mythopoeist, by Joyce R. Hines
Videos
How did George MacDonald enchant CS Lewis, by Ron Dart
George MacDonald, a film by Charles William Seper, Jr.
Documentary on his life and fantasy works